1/72 F-15J Eagle "1999 ACM"

[Brutus]

Here's my second build while getting some curing time for the Phantom.

Hasegawa F-15J Eagle, it's a pretty old kit in a way. Trying to get 'rid of it' from the stash before the decals becomes unusable in the future.

Somehow hasegawa has some issues for older decals through my experience,so not taking any chances.

Impressive art box of the kit

Decals seems good for now.

Office half done

Nose weights as this is a tail sitter

More progress soon.

[Hajo L.]

Good start! Is that clay in the nose? I ask because you may be careful, clay will propably melt your plastic within the next days....

HAJO

[Brutus]

Good start! Is that clay in the nose? I ask because you may be careful, clay will propably melt your plastic within the next days....

HAJO

No, that's blue tack with some fishing led inside it. All covered to make sure it stays there forever, don't want to get it loose and rattle all over in the future.

[yardbird78]

I like to use BB's for nose weight. They provide a lot of weight for the amount of space that they take up. Roll them around in some 15 minute epoxy and then drop them in place. Do not put them in place and pour the epoxy over them because the heat from that much curing epoxy can melt the plastic.

[Brutus]

I just realised that I have not been taking enough shots of this build.

Here are the last 2 shots I took.

As for the build, primed ..painted ..future on .. decal stage.

Should be coming on nicely soon, I hope.

More pictures to come on the build.

[Grandboof]

Looks good Looking forward to more pics

Martin H

[RKic]

Any tips on improving the fit of the intakes, and when in the assembly sequence to add the front fuselage to the back?

[Brutus]

Any tips on improving the fit of the intakes, and when in the assembly sequence to add the front fuselage to the back?

Hi RKIc,

I'd followed as per instructions, it's only that I did not trim any of the extra protruding plastics on the sharp edge on the 2 side walls (Part C5-C6/ C4-C3)

After gluing, I'd make sure they are nice 90 degrees of each other then on step 4 .. aligning them to the upper fuselage, using Mr.cement S or even Tamiya Extra thin cement it will 'melt' them into place.

Any extras can be sanded off or if there is a gap, putty then with acetone to flush it.

Front fuselage to the back? Well .. there's like 2 ways that I did before, one was as per instructions .. Trying to align them together, I found it's quite tedious as it can be a hit or miss.

One side of the joint may or may not be completely flush.

The other step is to glue the front nose fuselage to the upper back fuselage then only the lower back fuselage.

The trick is getting them align, not to mention a little balancing act as we have heavy nose with weights in it.

[RKic]

Thanks for the tips

and good luck on the rest of your build

[Brutus]

I had a hectic pairing with Blue scheme phantom somehow, was more into building till I had missed out most of the progress build shots. Anyway, completed it.. Nothing quite stunning about this Japanese F-15J except the tail markings I would say.

More shots in the completed builds section then.

[Grandboof]

Looks great like the tail art Well done

Martin H